ALLES GUTE ZUM GEBURTSTAG CLARA!!

Claras 9 Jahre alt heute! Glücklich, alles Gute zum Geburtstag!! Wir lieben Sie - Grammy und Großvater

Senior Pics

This is only one of many great senior pictures taken of Alison. It sits on my bedside table and is the last thing I see before I turn out the light! She's our first grandchild to graduate from high school. She will be starting college in the Fall. We're very proud.

The Family Matriarch is 90!!!

My Mom, AKA Grandma and GiGi Ma, is 90 years old today! Even the off and on rain and overcast day would not dampen anyone's spirits. I wish the entire clan could have been here to help us celebrate, but the ones who were able to be here are shown in the photo above. Actually, had all the family shown up, we probably wouldn't have been able to get everyone in the photo. Our Mom has four children (plus related sons-in-law), 12 grandchildren (and more in-laws), and 26 great grands with three more on the way. The photo above is just a mere sampling of the Charles and Mary Gloeckner progeny (as my Dad would have said). We have definitely done (and continue to do) our part in maintaining the population explosion! A handsome bunch I might add. The day began with Terry and Jannie taking Mom out to lunch. It was supposed to occur at the Swan Coach House at the Atlanta History Center and culminate with a meringue swan atop a dessert. Unfortunately, with all the rain, they ran into a terrible accident on I-285 and ended up at a Cracker Barrel, still a favorite of Mom's. She even ended up with a new quilt for her bed (which Terry and Jannie funded), so all was not lost. Michael and his family (minus Jonathon who is struggling through bootcamp) arrived in the afternoon as did Kim and her girls. At dinner time we headed to Social Circle to have dinner at the Blue Willow Inn - known for it's sumptuous buffet. When I had told Mom we were going there for her birthday dinner, she said, "Well, you will need to take me somewhere for crab legs later." Wouldn't you know it?? We were blessed with mountains of crablegs on the salad bar and everyone had their fill. The food was wonderful, the company was great, and a good time was had by all. Just a small thank you for a Mom who has been one of the best.


Mom got a rose plant from Tim and Jen, Anaclairs (her most favorite candy) and lots of birthday cards and gift cards from all over the country!

The Gloeckner Girls

48 Years of Wedded Incompatibility

This is one of the sayings that my Dad would jokingly use whenever he talked about his marriage to my Mom. In fact, they were opposites that attracted, as are Joe and I. But it was always very obvious that my Dad worshiped my Mom. Somehow, over the years Joe and I have come to realize that marriage doesn't come with any rules, it is lots of work, and requires much compromise on the part of both parties. When Daddy died in 2002, my parents had been married for 63 years. Guess something worked right for them. We are very blessed to have had them as a role model for our marriage.

69 and holding!

This morning I was having my morning cup of coffee and reading the paper. The date jumped out at me as I suddenly realized today is my birthday! Today I am 69 years old. How did I get here so fast? When I turned 60, I was very depressed and cried for two days. Since then I have come to realize that age is really just a number. I don't feel like what I always thought 69 should feel, people say I don't look my age (whatever it might look like), and healthwise, I feel great most days. I have gotten to a point that when I read the paper each day, I read through the obituaries. Fortunately, I most often don't know anyone there, and mainly look at the ages. Well, today everyone in the obituary section of our local paper was my age or younger! What does that make me??? My Mom (who will be 90 in a couple of days, which gives me hope) called to wish me a Happy Birthday. When I told her about the obituaries, she said, "I made a New Years resolution to not read the obituaries any more." Sounds like a plan to me. I'm off to Curves.....

Jack of all Trades, Master of Many.

I have been looking for a second chest for our bedroom for a while. I finally found one of the right size and finish online. Now mind you, nowhere in the website information did it say anything about needing any assembling, not even "needs partial assembly." The online photo showed a very nice, and not too expensive, chest that would match our bedroom furniture. When it arrived, the first clue I had that something was amiss was the shape of the box, which was long, skinny, and very flat. I knew I hadn't ordered a long, skinny, flat chest. When we unpacked the box, we realized that not even one screw had been put in place. Over the years, Joe has taken on a variety of tasks successfully, but this one looked really difficult and had at least 2500 pieces in the box (well maybe not that many, but it seemed so). It has taken Joe most of this week to finish it, a little each day, beginning the first day with putting the drawers together. From there it has slowly come together, but not without frustration and irritation. It is now complete, but we still haven't figured out how to get the bottom drawer to close completely. We decided, we would be the only ones to see it, so who cares? That man of mine, he can do anything he sets his mind to!!!

Spring has sprung!!!

Spring is here for sure! Daffodils have been blooming for weeks and the bradford pear trees(which yield no fruit whatsoever) are in full bloom - a sure sign that Spring is here. There are lots of neighbors out in their yards planting, cleaning up and just enjoying this wonderful, sunny weather. This morning I saw my first dogwood buds beginning to open and before we know it the azaleas will be in full regalia. Spring in the South is something to behold.

In Memorium

I got some sad news a few days ago. A very close friend of mine, Nancy Fackler, has died. I wish I had time to fully describe Nancy, she was special and one of a kind. Nancy and I were in the nursing program at FSU together. We spent our junior year in Miami, Florida doing studies in several specialty areas of our nursing program, and we shared an apartment that year. Although we had been friends before that time, during that year she and I solidified the foundation for our long, close friendship. Nancy was a terrible cook, but that was probably one of the few things she did not do well. Most everyone who ever met Nancy knew she was fun, adventurous, fearless, and ready to try most anything. She was always the life of the party and she never lacked for a date. Boys loved her because she would pretty much try anything, at least once. Over the years she earned her private pilots license, water skiied, sky dived, spelunked, scuba dived, and was an excellent down hill skiier, to name only a few of her endeavours. She was always a super tennis player and at 50 something was ranked in tennis in Florida. She loved to party and she loved kids. Her nieces could vouch for that! One time I asked her why she had never had any children. Her response was, "I guess I was just too busy." When we were stationed in Moscow, in the early 1970's, Nancy came to visit us. She somehow managed to make her way, unaided across the Soviet border between East and West Berlin and from there to Moscow. During her visit we took her to a Russian restaurant for dinner one night. When a Russian man asked her to dance, she said "Sure." When she returned to the table, she was laughing and said, "He kept saying 'You - Me go bed.' " Her response to him was "I don't speak Russian." I could relate many more "Nancy" stories that would bring a smile to your face, but time and space do not allow it.

Nancy followed in her father's footsteps as a member of the US Navy. She joined the Navy Nurse Corps as a 2nd Lt. after we finished our nursing education program at FSU. She served two years active duty at that time. Nancy remained in the Navy Nurse Corps Reserves and served a second two year active duty stint in Japan during the Viet Nam War caring for the war wounded. Had her father lived to see it, as a Chief Petty Officer, he would have burst his buttons with pride. She rose up through the ranks and ultimately became the second Navy nurse to rise to the rank of Rear Admiral in the Navy Nurse Corps Reserves. One Christmas in the late 1980's we got a Christmas card from Nancy saying she had decided to retire from the Reserves. A few weeks later I overheard Joe taking a telephone call. I heard him say, "Admiral! Admiral?!" Seems she had been promoted and would soon be taking over as Commander of the United States Navy Nurse Corps Reserves!! The Top Dog! The Big Poobah!! We were so proud. A few months after taking over this command Nancy began to experience a variety of unexplainable symptoms - vision problems, memory lapses, etc. After a myriad of tests, and seeing a variety of physicians from Mayo Clinic to Massachusetts General, Nancy was diagnosed with a very rare brain disorder very similar to Alzheimer's Disease. It was a terrible shock to realize that someone so vital and alive would gradually loose all capacity to be so. We attended Nancy's official retirement ceremony at the U.S. Naval Yard in Washington D.C. It was a wonderful ceremony and made us aware of how important a position she had held. Over the years that have followed, Nancy gradually progressed from these minor symptoms to total blindness and inability to recognize anyone. She became totally dependent on others for all her most basic needs. The one blessing of it all is that Nancy did not realize what was happening for most of it. Now that she is gone, I am thankful that it is over. She touched many lives and will be missed. Goodbye my friend. RIP.

Party Time!!!

Today is Joe's birthday and the animals are celebrating!! This morning is a beautiful Spring-like day, and they are out in force for our enjoyment and entertainment. Our house is situated on some acreage and we enjoy lots of wild life that lives and visits with us periodically. Over the years we've seen many squirrels, chipmunks, dove, deer (including one fawn that got caught in the stream and had to be rescued), and a large variety of birds, including hawks and owls. As time has passed we have added different kinds of feeders to the yard to keep the squirrels, birds, and others around so that we can watch them as they eat and play. The bungy jump and pinwheel corn feeders are actually for the squirrels. Joe recently put up some round mesh birdfeeders (for sunflowers) around the tree branches. Well, the squirrels seem to like the sunflowers as much as the birds do, and they have figured out how to get at the suspended mesh feeders on the tree branches. You will note that two squirrels are suspended upside down onto two of the mesh feeders, one squirrel is going at it on the corn pinwheel, and a fourth is stretching from one tree to the other to get at the third sunflower feeder. A fifth, not visible in the photo was sitting on the ground. Enjoy their antics!

Time Goes By

March is a very busy month for our family. Joe and I both have birthdays and our wedding anniversary to celebrate. This year, my Mom will celebrate her 90th birthday on the 28th. We also have four grandchildren who have March birthdays. In fact, today is Reuben's 12th birthday (last Wednesday was Ben's 12th). Then, Seth's is the 19th and Clara's is the 30th. It is hard to believe that Joe and I have celebrated over 50 birthdays together. That's a lot of candles!!! Last night Joe and I decided to celebrate his March 10 birthday a little early, and went out to eat at an amazing restaurant in Atlanta. We had not been there before, but had heard it was very good. It lived up to our expectations and we had a fantastic dinner. The food, the service and the ambience were all unbelieveable. I hope we will be able to return for a repeat someday. We have so many blessings in our lives and with the economy the way it is, have to be so thankful for the opportunity to celebrate in such a special way.

Prom Time

Today, Alison and I went shopping for a Prom dress. She is a senior this year, so the dress had to be special. Alison has always been somewhat conservative in her attire, but when I picked her up this morning she surprised me saying she wanted something that was a "princess" style dress. I had researched places to go on the internet, and we decided to hit a consignment store in Atlanta first. When we got out of the car at the store, the first thing I noticed was that next door to the consignment store was a cookie shop called "Ali's Cookies." Well, if that wasn't a sign of some kind (Ali is one of Alison's nicknames)! I jokingly remarked that it must mean something, and we entered the store. Alison picked out several dresses to try on, and when she came out in the most "princess" of all, she was very excited. It was purple (although it looks brilliant blue in the pic) with turquoise and silver "sparkles" on it. I know it sounds horrendous, but it was really beautiful and fit her very nicely. According to the store owner it had never been worn. Alison really loved the dress, but I convinced her we needed to look a couple of other places before making a decision. I should have saved my breathe and my gas. We drove to a large mall about 10 miles away and looked at two large stores with many dresses, none of which were nearly as pretty. In addition, they were much more expensive. We called the original store and asked the owner to hold "THE dress" for us until we could have lunch. I was craving sushi, so we went to a combination Japanese/Thai restaurant. I satisfied my sushi craving, and Alison had a Thai noodle bowl with both of us using chopsticks for the meal, bringing back memories of "Wagamama's" on our trip to London. When we arrived back at the original dress shop, I looked up and saw that there was a restaurant, two shops down, of the same name and chain as the one in which we had eaten lunch. How ironic! We should have just bought the dress, had our lunch there, and saved the gas it took to drive around. Maybe we could have even gotten an "Ali's cookie" to finish off our meal. It's always such a relief to find the "perfect" dress for an occasion, and we both believed that this dress is the perfect one for Alison's senior prom.

In Like a Lion, Out Like a Lamb!

Today, March 1, we had a snowstorm in Atlanta!!! This is one of those things that happens once every few years (and only once in a year usually) around here. It has been raining for three days, and then this morning, which started out with a light mist, about 11 am the snow started. I happened to be in downtown Atlanta when it began, and by the time I headed home about 3 pm there was around 1-3 inches (and that's a lot for this neck of the woods) of snow on the ground, buildings and trees. It really looked like a fairy land (at least what you could see of it). The flakes were huge and plentiful as they fell. I had heard the streets nearby were getting bad, so when I left the parking deck, I feared slipping and sliding about. Fortunately, the city streets were just wet and slushy, and the interstates were clear and only wet. The visibility was something else, and I had to keep my wipers on high all the way home to be able to see. Tonight it is getting colder by the minute and the wind has kicked up causing the windchimes on the porch to make a continous tinkling sound. It is supposed to get down into the low twenties, and I only hope that the wet roads don't turn into treacherous icy speedways. Somehow drivers in the South haven't learned that you need to slow down when there is moisture on the roads. I can drive on snow, but ice, that is a whole 'nother ball game! So, if need be, I will just stay inside tomorrow, where it is warm, dry and safe, until this all blows over.